Alleged Russian secret agents arrested by the FBI on suspicion of operating a
“deep cover” spying mission in the US blended in by leading ordinary
suburban lives, court papers claim.

The ten defendants, many of them couples, are accused of being so-called “illegals”, working for the Russian foreign secret service under false identities to penetrate US government policy-making circles.

It is alleged that they posed as ordinary citizens, living in the suburbs of cities including New York, Seattle and Boston – some of them since the mid 1990s.

They worked normal jobs, had children and even sought to buy houses to give the impression they were living the American dream.

However, their task was to glean information for SVR, the successor organisation to the Soviet Union's KGB, about the US government on topics including nuclear weapons, arms control, Iran, and CIA leadership, prosecutors allege.

Coded messages, allegedly intercepted passing between the defendants and SVR’s headquarters, known as Moscow Centre, give a revealing account of their mission.

One, in awkward English from bosses in Moscow, reads: “You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc — all these serve one goal: fulfil your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policy-making circles and send intels [intelligence reports] to C[enter].”

Another provides a glimpse into the tug-of-war between domestic life and their objective as two of the accused, Richard and Cynthia Murphy, allegedly bicker with superiors over plans to buy a house in Montclair, New Jersey.

After Moscow Centre, referred to as ‘C’, objected to the idea, the couple wrote an encrypted message saying: “We are under an impression that C. views our ownership of the house as a deviation from the original purpose of our mission here.

“From our perspective purchase of the house was solely a natural progression of our prolonged stay here. It was a convenient way to solving the housing issue, plus ‘to do as the Romans do’ in a society that values home ownership.”

Neighbours of the couple in Montclair said they were astonished when a team of FBI agents swooped on their home on Sunday night and led the couple away in handcuffs.

One described them as “suburbia personified” and said they had been asking locals for advice about schools in the area for their young daughters.

Neighbour Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges. “They couldn’t have been spies. Look what she did with the hydrangeas,” she told the New York Times.

Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley, another couple arrested, had a flat on a residential street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where several Harvard professors and students also live.

Neighbours said they believed the pair were in their 40s and had two teenage sons.

Montse Monne-Corbero, who lives next door, described Miss Foley as “very courteous and very nice” and added that their sons had shovelled snow for her in the winter but often had “loud parties”.

Another neighbour, Lila Hexner, who lives in the building next door, said Miss Foley had told her she was in the real estate business.

Another of those charged, Mikhail Semenko, was described by residents in Arlington, Virginia, as a stylish man in his late 20s who drove a Mercedes S-500 car and was often heard speaking Russian to his brunette girlfriend.

Court papers allege that during a seven-year investigation, the FBI cracked SVR’s ambitious “illegals program”, in which agents were provided with false identities, referred to as their “legend”.

The papers say: “The FBI’s investigation has revealed that a network of illegals is now living and operating in the United States in the service of one primary, long-term goal: to become sufficiently Americanised such that they can gather information about the United States for Russia, and can successfully recruit sources who are in, or are able to infiltrate, United States policy-making circles.”

They add: “Illegals will sometimes pursue degrees at target-country universities, obtain employment, and join relevant professional associations; these activities deepen an illegal’s ‘legend’.

“Illegals often operate in pairs – being placed together by Moscow Centre while in Russia, so that they can live together and work together in a host country, under the guise of a married couple.

“Illegals who are placed together and cohabit in the country to which they are assigned will often have children together; this further deepens an illegal’s ‘legend’.”

Each of the 10 defendants was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the US Attorney General, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Nine of the defendants were also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum 20 years in prison.